Biographical History

William Stanley Braithwaite (1878-1962) was an African-American poet, literary
critic, editor, and anthologist. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, he was for the
most part educated at home, but his love of literature led him to his first job
as an apprentice at the publishing firm of Ginn & Company. Over the course of
his career he wrote numerous books of poetry and literary criticism, including
Lyrics of Life and Love (1904),
The House of Falling Leaves (1908),
The Poetry
of Thomas S. Jones Jr. (1910),
The Story of the Great War (1919),
Our Essayists
and Critics of Today (1920),
The Grecian Influence of John Myers O'Hara (1926),
Frost on the Green Leaf (1928), and
The Bewitched Parsonage: The Story of the
Brontes (1950). Anthologies edited by Braithwaite include
The Poetic Year for
1916 (1916),
Golden Treasury of Magazine Verse (1918),
The Book of Modern
British Verse,
Victory: Contributed by 38 American Poets, and
Anthology of
Massachusetts Poets (1922).

He served as literary editor of the
Boston Evening Transcript, editor of
The
Poetry Journal in Boston, Massachusetts, executive editor for B. J. Brimmer
Publishing Company, and editor of the annual
Anthology of Magazine Verse and
Year Book of American Poetry, published from 1913 to 1939. He was also
Professor of Literature at Atlanta University for nearly ten years.

In 1918 Braithwaite received Honorary Masters degrees from Atlanta University
and Talladega College, and the same year the NAACP awarded him its Spingarn Medal.

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The
William Stanley Braithwaite Papers is comprised of 3-1/2 boxes of literary correspondence and 3-1/2
boxes of manuscripts.

Manuscripts contains numerous manuscripts of the author's works, outlines
for projected works, and typescripts of work of many leading poets collected for
the Braithwaite's famous anthologies.

Arrangement of the Collection

Correspondence is arranged alphabetically by name. Manuscripts are arranged ???

Restrictions

Access Restrictions:

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require
advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance
concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Use Restrictions:

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and
all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from
any
materials in this collection.

Related Material

A large part of William Stanley Braithwaite's personal library is at Boston University.

Administrative Information

William Stanley Braithwaite Papers,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Gift of
Mrs. William S. Braithwaite, 1964.

Table of Contents

Correspondence

Manuscripts

Inventory

Correspondence

Incoming literary correspondence

Box 1

Aa-Az

Box 1

Academy of American Poets 1959

Box 1

Adams, J. Donald 1957-1959

Box 1

Auslander, Joseph 1959

Box 1

Austin, Edmund O. 1950-1958

Box 1

Ba-Bz

Box 1

Bardolph, Richard 1955-1957

Box 1

Beebe, Lucius 1946

Box 1

Benet, Rosemary 1959

Box 1

Black, John 1921-1948

Box 1

Bligh, E. W. 1919

Box 1

Bonner, Amy 1941

Box 1

Bontemps, Arna 1948-1960

Box 1

Brennan, John Payne 1958-1959

Box 1

Bromfield, Louis undated

Box 1

Brown, Sterling 1941

Box 1

Buchman, Marion 1960-1961

Box 1

Bullock, Marie 1958-1961

Box 1

Bynner, Witter 1958-1960

Box 1

Ca-Cz

Box 1

Canfield, Cass undated

Box 1

Carman, Bliss 1911

Box 1

Carpenter, Margaret 1958

Box 1

Cerf, Bennet A. 1942

Box 1

Chapin, Katherine Garrison 1958

Box 1

Clairmonte, Glenway and Joy

Box 1

Clemens, Cyril 1945

Box 1

Code, Grant H. 1939

Box 1

Coward-McCann 1949-1953

Box 1

Cozzens, James Gould 1924

Box 1

Crews, Caswell W. 1931

Box 1

Cullen, Ida and Countee undated

Box 1

Da-Dz

Box 1

Dargan, Olive T. 1958-1960

Box 1

Davidson, Gustav 1958-1960

Box 1

DuBois, W. E. B. 1939-1949

Box 1

Ea-Ez

Box 1

Eaton, Charles Edward 1958-1960

Box 1

Ebony Magazine 1950-1956

Box 1

Engle, Paul 1959

Box 1

Evans, Charles 1956

Box 1

Fa-Fz

Box 1

Farber, Norma 1959

Box 1

Fenton, Charles 1956

Box 1

Flaccus, Kimball 1953

Box 1

Frost, Robert 1958

Box 1

Ga-Gz

Box 1

Gardiner, George L. 1959-1960

Box 1

Ginsberg, Louis 1959

Box 1

Gerbaulet, Joy and Claire 1916-1917

Box 1

Gomme, Laurence 1958-1962

Box 2

Ha-Hz

Box 2

Hagedorn, Hermann 1959

Box 2

Hanes, Leigh 1951-1956

Box 2

Hillyer, Robert 1925

Box 2

Holmes, John 1956-1958
- includes 2 copies of poems

Box 2

Hughes, Langston 1947-1959

Box 2

Hunting, H.B. 1938-1939

Box 2

Ja-Jz

Box 2

Jackson, Ralph

Box 2

Johnson, Georgia Douglas undated

Box 2

Ka-Kz

Box 2

Kantor, Mackinlay 1956-1959

Box 2

Keith, Joseph Joel 1959-1960
- includes 1 inscribed poem

Box 2

Kline, Burton 1955-1957

Box 2

La-Lz

Box 2

Lawrence, Lillith 1958-1959

Box 2

Lennon, Florence Becker undated

Box 2

Ma-Mz

Box 2

Mays, Benjamin 1942

Box 2

McCord, David 1958-1959

Box 2

Moore, Marianne 1960

Box 2

Mowrer, Paul Scott 1959-1961

Box 2

Na-Nz

Box 2

Negro Digest 1947-1948

Box 3

Oa-Oz

Box 3

Pa-Pz

Box 3

Peloubet, Maurice 1958-1960

Box 3

Perkins, Maxwell 1939-1949

Box 3

Perry, Bliss undated

Box 3

Perry, Minerva 1947

Box 3

Poetry Society of America

Box 3

Pollock, Helen Channing 1949

Box 3

Ra-Rz

Box 3

Reid, Ira De A. 1941-1946

Box 3

Roberts, Ruby Altizer 1956-1960

Box 3

Robeson, Paul 1949

Box 3

Ross, David 1960

Box 3

Sa-Sz

Box 3

Schmuller, Aaron 1959

Box 3

Schultz, Lula Minerva

Box 3

Schuyler, George S. 1953-1958

Box 3

Schwartz, Delmore 1958

Box 3

Scott, Dorothy L. 1942

Box 3

Siegel, Eli 1959-1960

Box 3

Siegel, Jules 1958

Box 3

Sissle, Noble

Box 3

Smith, Chard Powers 1955-1961

Box 3

Sokoloff, Vladimir undated

Box 3

Spingarn, Arthur B. 1941-1955

Box 3

Stiles, Roberta undated

Box 3

Stuart, Jesse 1958-1959

Box 3

Sullivan, A. M. 1958-1960

Box 3

Swenson, May 1958

Box 3

Ta-Tz

Box 3

The Dryden Press 1941-1942

Box 3

Tillman, N. P. 1944-1948

Box 3

Torrence, Ridgeley 1942
- inscribed photo

Box 3

Tutin, William L. 1945-1947

Box 3

Ua-Uz

Box 3

Va-Vz

Box 3

Van Vechten, Carl 1947

Box 3

Viereck, George Sylvester 1958

Box 3

Vinal, Howard 1948

Box 3

Wa-Wz

Box 3

Wakefield, Oliver Lindsay

Box 3

Washington, Booker T. 1939

Box 3

Weaver, Robert C. 1961

Box 3

Wheelock, John Hall 1952

Box 3

Whitcomb, George Faunce 1958-1959

Box 3

Widdemer, Margaret 1958

Box 3

Williams, William Carlos undated

Box 3

Wright, Roscoe 1927-1962

Box 3

Unidentifiable correspondence signed "Barbara"

Box 3

Unidentifiable correspondence

Box 3

Incoming family correspondence

Box 3

Miscellaneous correspondence

Outgoing literary correspondence

Box 4

Aa-Bz

Box 4

Ca-Gz

Box 4

Ha-Lz

Box 4

Ma-Pz

Box 4

Qa-Zz

Box 4

Unidentifiable and/or fragments

Manuscripts

Verse by others

Box 4

Aa-Cz, typescripts

Box 4

Da-Lz, typescripts

Box 4

Hanes, Leigh, holograph, with short article

Box 4

Ma-Rz, typescripts

Box 4

Sa-Zz, typescripts

Box 4

Printed copies of verse by others

Box 4

Miscellaneous typescript copies of poems by other

Verse by Braithwaite

Box 5

Holograph

A Christmas card you cannot read
Among my friends and those
An Easter Song For Wynone
A Mother's Prayer
A rose to the living is more
Dear Ike, we honor and adore you
For Marianne Moore
Go, book, to her be heart and eyes
Idiomatic
If Herrick had his Julia
I looked at the moon
In a sunken Pool
Not Wise Enough
Of One Who Spurns the Lyric
One Book Review by J—
On An Alabaster Burial Urn
Return of the Native
Rorty
Stardust Vendor
Shadows
Tenderer I Would Be
The Greeks Lost the Word For It
The Lady And the Census Taker
The Praying Hands
There are windows to houses
This is the year of great decision
Though he may come but once a year
Three tall candles may they flame
To Helen Channing Pollock
To Jane and Julie
To Laurie My Granddaughter On Her Second Birthday
To M.
To Robert Frost
We are the music-makers
What can I wish you more than this
When Mary, flower of maiden head
Who Makes the Wind

Box 5

Typescript

Ascension
Ambrose Bierce
Anne Bradstreet and Phyllis Wheatley
An Easter Song
Another
Avowal
Bewitchment
Blessing
Bryant Park
Chastisement
Christopher Cinicampius Writes a Letter in Memory of his Friend Erasmus
Del Cascar
Cynthia Taggart
Emily Bronte
Ever Old, Ever New
Femininity
Flower of the Hawthorne
For a Lady Who Asked Me to Write a Petrarchan Sonnet
For Truda T. Weil
Guynemer
Idiomatic
If I Were Prickled With the Scratch of Rhyme
Iron and corn to rust and ripen
How Have I Reached This Height That Now Surveys
Life's Trivia
Loves of the Puppets
Mr. Kasebier's Orchard
Mysteries
Not Wise Enough
Keat's Birthday
Of Dead Ladies
Of One Who Spurns the Lyric
O Lady of the Hawthorne
On An Alabaster Burial Urn
On Being Threatened With Blindness
On the Centenary of the Birth of Booker T. Washington
Only To the Soul Is lt Given
On the Jiffy Bag
Petition
Photograph of Robert Frost
Prophecy
Remembrance of Elizabethan Springtide
Saint Rose of Lima
Sara Teasdale
Sea Honeymoon To Icaria
Shadows
Sidney Lanier
Should the bright world now fade out on a weight
Signal
Some Literary Epigrams
Tender I Would Be
The Age of Ebony
The Echo of the Singers
The Ghost In the Carpet
The Greeks Lost the Word For lt
The Hour Most Still
The King's Daughter
The Mutuel Player's Prayer
These things now swept me on a tide
The Palm
The Praying Hands
The Septuagenarian Approaches Christmas
The Signal
The Tragedy of Lovers Leap
They Are Awakened
Time For A Change
To Jane And Julie
To Marianne Moore For Her Birthday
To One In Whose Feeding Lurks A Dragon
To Robert Herrick, In the Spring
To Smith, — Her Dog
Trail-Breaker
Who Makes the Wind
With a fierce spring and loud alarm
Wreckage
Will There Be Another April
You Flashed Like A Cardinal Bird

Articles and books by Braithwaite

Box 5

Selected Poems
- typescript

Box 5

Selected Poems
- printer's proofs

Box 5

A Letter In Memory of Erasmus and Other Poems
- typescript

Box 5

Anthology of Magazine Verse and Yearbook of American Poetry 1958
- partial proofs

Box 5

The Bewitched Parsonage: The Story of the Brontes
- typescript table of contents